European Union

The new European External Action Service (EEAS), which will serve as a foreign ministry and diplomatic corps, offers an unprecedented opportunity for the EU to enhance its role as a global actor. Bringing together previously disparate units and staff under one institution, the EEAS also has the potential to bring consistency, momentum and efficiency to the EU’s implemention of its wide-ranging commitments to prevent violent conflict and build peace beyond its borders.

EU member states include four of the five countries which exceed the UN target of 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI) being given as development assistance - Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Luxembourg – and three of the five largest donors in the world – the UK, France and Germany. However these countries are also three of the world's biggest arms exporters. It is therefore crucial to engage with the EU on a wide range of issues ranging from security, peace-building and development to arms export controls.

Our office in Brussels gives us access to decision-makers in the Council of the EU, the European External Action Service, the European Commission (EC) and the European Parliament. We work to influence these EU institutions and the member states to become more effective at arms transfer controls, conflict-sensitive approaches to development, and security system reform in order to prevent conflict and build long term peace. We are particularly focused on closing the ‘implementation gap’ between policy and practice which has been a key obstacle to further progress in these areas.

Saferworld recently led the security cluster of the EC funded ‘Initiative for Peacebuilding’, coordinating an alliance of organisations to promote knowledge and expertise on conflict prevention and and recommending practical ways to implement people-centred approaches to security building activities.

In the framework of another EC project, ‘Initiative for Peacebuilding – Early Warning’, we are working together with other organisations on strengthening the link between Early Warning and longer term conflict prevention to help the EU to respond more rapidly and effectively in volatile situations.

We are also working on ‘Peoples’ Peacemaking Perspectives’ - a wide-ranging project funded under the EC Instrument for Stability. This project will provide the EU with in-depth and informed conflict analyses from 18 different countries and regions across Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. These analyses will focus on the views of the communities affected by conflict and marginalised voices among them – informing the EU’s work on conflict prevention and helping to implement more people-centred policies.
 
As a founder and current Steering Group member of the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office (EPLO), we take part in various joint advocacy initiatives aiming to influence EU peace and conflict related policies.

We also work in partnership with European governments, parliamentarians and non-governmental organisations to strengthen regulation of the European arms trade by carrying out research, developing policy on the EU Common Position on arms exports and raising awareness on this issue through seminars and policy roundtables with governments and civil society.

Word on the street

South Sudan Monitor captures a few public opinions of South Sudanese on recent events in the troubled border region between South Sudan and Sudan.